Crosswalk.com aims to offer the most compelling biblically-based content to Christians on their walk with Jesus. Crosswalk.com is your online destination for all areas of Christian Living – faith, family, fun, and community. Each category is further divided into areas important to you and your Christian faith including Bible study, daily devotions, marriage, parenting, movie reviews, music, news, and more.

Teen Girls Twice as Likely to Suffer Depression than Boys

Jim Liebelt

Jim is Senior Writer, Editor and Researcher for the HomeWord Center for Youth and Family at Azusa Pacific University. Jim has over 25 years of experience as a youth and family ministry specialist, and has been on the HomeWord staff since 1998. He has served over the years as a pastor, author, youth ministry trainer, adjunct college instructor and speaker. Jim’s culture blog and parenting articles appear on HomeWord.com. Jim is a contributing author of culture and parenting articles to Crosswalk.com. Jim and his wife Jenny live in Olympia, WA.

2014Jan 21

Comments

According to a new study, girls are nearly twice as likely than boys to experience bouts of depression and anxiety in their teenage years.

Researchers monitored nearly 2,000 students from high schools in Victoria, Australia, between 1992 and 2008.

They were each tested eight times for mental disorders, between the ages of about 15 years and 29 years.

The report, published in The Lancet, found 54 per cent of girls suffered an episode of depression or anxiety during their teens.

For boys, that figure dipped below a third (29 percent).

The study's lead author Professor George Patton, says it is still unclear why girls had more problems. "It may be something to do with biology. There may be a predisposition of this kind in girls," he said. "The good news is that many of these problems do resolve."

Many episodes, especially when brief in duration, were limited to teenage years and did not carry on or recur in adulthood, researchers found. Overall, almost half with a disorder in adolescence had no further issues into adulthood.